Organize House

Organize House: The House is Organized, but How Do I Keep it This Way?

Figuring out how to organize your house is never easy, but sometimes keeping it organized can be almost as challenging. However, with some work and cooperation from the rest of the family, it will be easier. It takes time to get used to new habits, but with reminders (not nagging), everyone will be in the swing of things soon.

One thing that will help keep things running smoothly is to establish some daily routines. Even though everything has a place, it takes effort to get it there. So maintenance is crucial to the system working. There are a few different ways you can keep the whole family involved.

One way is to make a chart showing all the rooms in the house and all the family members. Each family member can be responsible for making sure a specific area is clutter free each day. They go through each room with a basket or box and anything that isn't supposed to be in that room goes in the box. Anything that is meant to be in the room gets put away.

Everyone then meets in a designated area, possibly the dining room, and they sort through the items to see what belongs where. The people then return the items to the correct room. Another way is to have everyone work on each room together, and then each person can take their own belongings to their rooms.

If you have more than one floor in your home, running up and down stairs all day to put things away can get rather tiresome, even though the exercise is good for us. One suggestion is to keep a box at the top and bottom of the flight of stairs (in a safe location) where people can deposit things they find that belong on another floor. At the end of the day, or when the box is full, the things can all be put back where they belong.

Even the youngest members of the family can help. Labeling things, at least at first, will help people remember where things go. If the children are too young to read, pictures help, especially with their toys. You can cut out pictures from the latest sale ad in the mail and tape them to drawers, boxes and shelves to help remind the children where their things go.

Clothes can quite often begin to pile up, despite our best efforts. Designate a place for all dirty laundry. You can color code the baskets, or label them for white, darks and colors. Everyone can then put their own washing in the baskets. When a basket is full, it's time to wash.

No matter what home organization system you decide works best for your family, consistency is the key. In order to keep up on the clutter, everyone has to make the effort every day to help put things away.